Pages

23 June, 2011

This week is important in Edward II World :) for various anniversaries...

18 June: Edward and Isabella's elder daughter Eleanor was born at the palace of Woodstock in 1318, and named after Edward's mother Eleanor of Castile. Edward - then thirty-four - had been in Canterbury, apparently on pilgrimage, but arrived in Woodstock on the day of his daughter's birth. His Wardrobe account records a payment of 500 marks to "Lady Isabella, queen of England, of the king's gift, for the feast of her purification after the birth of the Lady Alienora her daughter." Eleanor married, shortly before her fourteenth birthday in 1332, Count (later Duke) Reynald II of Gelderland, and had two sons, named after her husband and her father; the marriage to King Alfonso XI of Castile planned for her by Edward didn't come off. Edward's chamber journal of 1326 reveals that he appointed Jonete Germye (or Jermy) sister of his sister-in-law Alice Hales, countess of Norfolk, as the governess (mestresse) of his two daughters, and paid a messenger five shillings to take his letters to the little girls, then aged eight and five, in Marlborough on 25 July that year.

19 June: I could hardly let the anniversary of Piers Gaveston's death in 1312 pass without comment! RIP Piers Gaveston, earl of Cornwall and beloved of a king. (See Anerje's post remembering him too.)

19 June: the day in 1313 when Edward watched 54 naked dancers perform for him in Pontoise.

19 June: the day in 1320 when Edward set sail for France to pay homage to his brother-in-law Philippe V for Gascony and Ponthieu.

20 June: the day in 1316 when Edward sent his kinsman the earl of Pembroke to deal with the rebellion in Bristol.

23 June: the anniversary of the first day of the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Don't think I need to say much about it, really...:)

23 June: the day in 1324 when Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, died suddenly on his way to Paris to negotiate with Charles IV on Edward's behalf.

24 June: the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, one of Edward's favourite saints. The king marked the day in 1317 wearing (presumably) "a crown of wax of various colours and of various devices" for which he had paid two pounds, and in 1326 spent five shillings playing dice with Sir Giles Beauchamp and unnamed other members of his household in the Tower of London.

25 June: the day in 1308 on which Piers Gaveston was ordered to depart from England (he sailed for Ireland to take up his role as king's lieutenant), in his second exile.

27 June: the day he returned a year later. :-)

28 June: on this day in 1323, Edward II ordered the bishop of London to prevent people praying and making offerings at a tablet in St Paul's "whereon are depicted statues, sculpture or images of diverse persons," having learned that many people went to "worship it as a holy thing." The problem was that one of the persons thereon depicted was his cousin Thomas of Lancaster, whom he had had executed the previous year.

29 June: on this day in 1317, five years and ten days after Piers' death, Edward ordered abbot and convent of Thame to take on six additional monks "to celebrate divine service daily in the abbey for the souls of the king’s ancestors, and of Piers de Gaveston, earl of Cornwall." And in 1320, he paid liege homage to Philippe V at Amiens.

15 June, 2011

A building I visited a few days ago: Cartmel Priory in South Cumbria, founded in about 1190 by the great William Marshal (1146/47-14 May 1219), earl of Pembroke, lord of Cartmel and regent of England for Edward II's grandfather Henry III. Via his five daughters (his five sons all died childless), William was the ancestor of most of the English nobility of Edward II's era; his namesake William Marshal, a descendant of one of his brothers, was killed at Bannockburn in 1314. Cartmel was spelled Kertmel or Kertmele in the early fourteenth century, and there are various references in Edward II's reign to the prior. The priory was dissolved in 1536, and only the church survives (and was used as a stable by some of Oliver Cromwell's troops in 1643).

Misericords in the choir, which date to 1440

The tomb of Sir John Harington (knighted with Edward of Caernarfon in 1306, died 1347) and his wife Joan.

Michael Jecks' novel King's Gold, the latest instalment in his popular Knights Templar Mysteries series, was released in the UK a few days ago. Many thanks to Mike for sending me a copy and mentioning me in the acknowledgements.

Edward's titles, 1312

Edward, par la grace de DIEU, Roi d’Engleterre, seignur d’Irlaunde, ducs d’Aquitaine, & conte de Pontif & de Monstroil
[Edward, by the grace of GOD, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, and Count of Ponthieu and Montreuil]

Edward II's coronation oath: translation

Sire, will you grant and keep and by your oath confirm to the people of England the laws and customs given to them by the previous just and god-fearing kings, your ancestors, and especially the laws, customs, and liberties granted to the clergy and people by the glorious king, the sainted Edward, your predecessor?
I grant and promise them.
Sire, will you in all your judgments, so far as in you lies, preserve to God and Holy Church, and to the people and clergy, entire peace and concord before God?
I will preserve them.
Sire, will you, so far as in you lies, cause justice to be rendered rightly, impartially, and wisely, in compassion and in truth?
I will do so.
Sire, do you grant to be held and observed the just laws and customs that the community of your realm shall determine, and will you, so far as in you lies, defend and strengthen them to the honour of God?
I grant and promise them.

Penny of Edward II's reign

Tomb of Edward II

Amouncement of the birth of Edward III, November 1312

Isabella, by the grace of God, Queen of England, Lady of Ireland, and Duchess of Aquitaine, to our well-beloved the Mayor and aldermen and the commonalty of London, greeting. Forasmuch as we believe that you would willingly hear good tidings of us, we do make known to you that our Lord, of His grace, has delivered us of a son, on the 13th day of November, with safety to ourselves, and to the child. May our Lord preserve you.

Berkeley Castle, scene of Edward II's imprisonment

Letter of Queen Isabella to Edward II, 1314

My very dear and dread Lord, I commend myself to you as humbly as I can. My dear Lord, you have heard how our seneschal and our controller of Ponthieu have come from Ponthieu concerning our affairs; ...I beg you, my gentle Lord, that by this message it may please you to request your chancellor by letter that he may summon those of your council to him and take steps speedily in this matter, according to what he and your council see what is best to do for your honour and profit....May the Holy Spirit keep you, my very dear and dread Lord.

The Vita Edwardi Secundi on Edward II and Piers Gaveston

I do not remember to have heard that one man so loved another. Jonathan cherished David, Achilles loved Patroclus. But we do not read that they were immoderate. Our King, however, was incapable of moderate favour, and on account of Piers was said to forget himself, and so Piers was accounted a sorcerer.